It's also worth pointing out that (as described in the Wikipedia article about him) that Sam Shepard also earned renown as an accomplished writer and playwright long before he became known as an actor -- he won 6 Obie awards as a playwright between the years of 1966 and 1968, and won a Pulitzer Prize for his play Buried Child (1978), and even starred in his own play, Fool for Love, directed by the late Robert Altman.